Chapter 57: New Weapons, Master’s Call

A day passed as Rion and his squad trained under Balthar for their first hunt at the purple fog forest.During their training, Arok sent a word mentioning that their weapons were ready.

At the moment, they stood in Arok’s forge with their eyes wide in awe while staring at weapons placed atop the table, and Rion asked, "They are... ours?"

On the table were:

A spear which had a blue spearhead and heel of azrath and its dark shaft, which was made out of zorthan — the mixture of azrath for aura enhancement, mythiron for the strength and olcen for flexibility, looked like a lunging serpent as its maw gripped the spearhead.

A bow with the frame of zorthan and an outer layer of other materials that were carved in colourful feathers, while dark claws gripped the steel-like blue string of a twisted and knotted web of blue rhino spider. Beside the bow was a leather quiver full of ten arrows with azrath arrowheads that resembled a flying eagle.

A pair of curved daggers with their fang-like blue blade of azrath, while their howling wolf crossguard and handle were of zorthan.

A pair of heavy gauntlets that had Azrath carved into a bear’s maw at the offensive spots and Zorthan carved into a plated armour at the defensive spots.

A battle mace with a dark body of zorthan and the edge of its horned bull-like head adorned with azrath.

Arok smirked and said while puffing his chest in pride, "Stop gawking and try them out."

They nodded and stepped towards their respective weapons.

Rion picked up his spear and studied it from top to bottom. Its blue luminous spearhead gleamed under the light of torches while its dark shaft absorbed all of the light around it.

He tightened his grip and his heart began to pound against his chest with a single thought in his head, ’I want to try this out.’

Seeing their admiration and lover-struck eyes, Arok’s lips curved up into a bright, prideful smile and he said, "To make use of their true strength, you would require aura... so you all better train as hard as you can."

Flames of determination began to burn in their eyes and they tightened their grips around the handles of their weapons.

Arok turned his head towards Rion and asked, "What do you say, boy? Is this old man still not good enough?"

Rion hugged him with a wide smile and answered, "You are the BEST!"

"BHa-bhabhabha!" Arok burst into laughter at his shamelessness and waved them off. "Now go away from here, you rascals!"

They flashed him a smile and stepped towards the exit. Just as Rion was about to leave, he called out, "Rion."

Rion stopped and turned towards him. "Hmm?"

Arok walked closer, handed him a leather pouch that had the leftover azrath and said, "Your grandfather helped us with the mine and forge, and I am not petty enough to keep what’s yours after everything he did for this place."

"All right," Rion muttered as he took the leather pouch and left Arok’s forge.

[You have stored 1kg Azrath!]

He read the message and began to recall everything he knew about his grandfather.

He didn’t know much about Andreus Leonara.

All he knew was that he had waged a war upon the red and black mountains for an item mentioned in the royal prophecy.

But after what had happened to his mother, he had decided to stop the war and had negotiated a different method to obtain the item with his father.

He neither knew about the item nor the method but none of it mattered because right now all he wanted was to test out his spear.

***

All of them were excited to test out their new weapons, so they decided to end the group training to try them out, because they didn’t want to spar while using weapons they hadn’t used before.

Dora dashed through the forest north to the Redwood Basin and stopped at a clearing.

At one of the rocks placed around the clearing sat Jura. He looked at her with furrowed brows and commented, "You are late."

She nodded while calming her breath and said, "I went to get my bow from old man Arok."

"Oh?" Jura’s eyes brightened in curiosity. He jumped off the rock and walked over to her.

She handed the bow to him, and he checked it before he took out an arrow from her quiver and nocked it on the bow.

He pointed the arrow-nocked bow at a thick redwood tree at the far end of the wide clearing.

A strand of his solid green aura entered the arrow and he let go of the string.

Pew—!

The arrow flashed towards the tree and cleanly pierced through it.

The arrow continued its flight and suddenly turned towards Jura.

Zrr!

He raised his hand, grabbed the arrow and said, "This is Master’s call... but it requires aura for one to use it which you still haven’t awakened."

Dora bit her lower lip and lowered her head in self-shame and disappointment.

He patted her back for a few moments before he pointed towards a tree at the top of a nearby cliff and ordered while handing the bow back to her, "Shoot that tree."

She took the bow and nocked an arrow on it.

She pulled the string and exhaled softly before letting the string go.

Pew!

The arrow shot out from the bow and made its way towards the tree. But, before it could reach it — It fell down.

Her expression hardened, but instead of giving up, she nocked another arrow on her bow and let it fly once more.

Pew!

The result was the same, but she continued to shoot the arrows.

Jura smiled at her dedication and thought, ’I wonder, what would it have been like if she had the bloodline of the God of Bow instead of the God of Travel?’

He shook his head away from those unreasonable thoughts and looked at the pair of blue eyes that were watching them from the corner of his eye.

’Does he really think that he can hide from me just by hiding behind a bush?’ He thought in bafflement and a faint smile appeared on his face.